FAQ Topic - Internationalisation and Multinationalisation in javascript. (2010-01-23)

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FAQ Topic - Internationalisation and Multinationalisation in
javascript.
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Internationalisation means using one form which is everywhere both
acceptable and understood. Any international standard not supported by
default can be coded for.

For example, there is an International Standard for numeric Gregorian
date format; but none for decimal and thousands separators.

Multinationalisation means using different forms for different
readers. It cannot work well in general, because it requires a
knowledge of all preferences and the ability to choose the right
one, in an environment where many systems are inappropriately
set anyway.

Javascript has a few Multinationalisation features. The various
` toString() `methods are all implementation dependent,
but tend to use either UK or US settings (not necessarily correctly).
ECMAScript Ed. 3 introduced some capabilities, including the
` toLocaleString() `method which should create a string
based on the host's locale.

Much more support is expected in future versions of ECMAScript.


The complete comp.lang.javascript FAQ is at
http://jibbering.com/faq/